


Disorder and Early Sorrow

by TeaRoses



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-01
Updated: 2010-03-01
Packaged: 2017-10-07 15:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is there ever such a thing as a happy ending?  Major spoilers for Cowboy Bebop and the book "The Sorrows of Young Werther."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disorder and Early Sorrow

Faye was staring out at the stars again. It always unnerved Jet when she did that, because there were so many things she could be looking for. After Spike, he should be used to people that he couldn't figure out. But it seemed like he wasn't.

He moved closer to her and watched the stars too for a moment.

"They say it's like a junkyard out here near Earth since the gate disaster," he said. "I wonder what it looked like before?"

"I know what it looked like before," said Faye. "Remember?"

"Oh, hell, Faye, I'm sorry. But you hardly talk about it." He drew closer to her, feeling awkward.

"There's not so much to say," she said. "I was a kid, and I had a house, and a future."

Jet thought of the young Faye on the video. Now that Faye had the video he hadn't been watching it, and he felt that was just as well. It made him feel sad, gave him a shadow of the feeling he had had when the old shaman had predicted Spike's death. Jet had stood there refusing to believe something bad was happening that couldn't be stopped.

Faye continued speaking without turning to face him. "I remembered so many things, but what does it really matter with none of it left?"

Jet thought of how she had looked when he had found her in the burnt-out house. A perfectly beautiful and vibrant woman, trying to get back to a life that didn't exist anymore on a planet that was as good as dead. He had thought at the time that he was saving Faye too often. But she had looked so vulnerable there, and at that time he was glad to be able to save anyone. Finding her had moved and frightened him, but he had never told her that.

"Why do you keep me here, Jet?" asked Faye.

"There was never a good moment to get rid of you," he replied.

Faye laughed. "So that's really it?"

Jet nearly put an arm around her, but were too many ways to interpret that, so he refrained. "Nah," he said. "You're a good partner when you try. When you stay away from the gambling."

"I'm not what Spike was," said Faye.

"Sometimes that's a good thing," said Jet. There were many ways to take that too, but he let it lie.

"I tried reading one of your books once, Jet. Thought I'd be better company, but it didn't work out."

Jet was surprised. He hadn't complained about her company. It was true that he didn't spend much time with her, but that wasn't because of the ways she was different from Spike. It was because sometimes he thought she was too much like him: closed-off, hard to understand, and drawn toward something that could take her away forever and leave him alone again. But if she wanted to read his books, maybe she really did want to stay.

"So what book did you read?" he asked. "Did you finish?"

"Goethe, the Sorrows of Young Werther," said Faye."

"Well you said Goethe right. But it's Werther," he said, pronouncing it with a "v" sound.

"Whatever, Jet. But I was really disappointed."

"In what way?" he asked.

"I expected it to be all philosophical. You know, about why life is the way it is."

"Can anybody explain life?" asked Jet.

"Probably not. But anyway, Werther was a jerk." This time she pronounced it correctly. "He falls in love with a married woman, and instead of just getting over it or moving on or something he reads depressing poetry. And finally he gets so depressed he offs himself. Or am I missing something?"

"Well, I read it a long time ago, but I think that's about it."

"Well, what does it mean? I thought all this intellectual stuff was supposed to mean something," said Faye in a complaining tone.

"I think it means that love doesn't make any sense," said Jet.

"Isn't that what every romance novel in the solar system means?"

"Maybe," said Jet. "But they have happy endings."

"It's not so terrible to want a happy ending."

"No, it's not."

Now he did put his arm around her, and she leaned against him slightly. It was funny, finally touching her after so much time of seeing her bare skin. She felt delicate, and he wanted to draw her closer. But he wondered if that would be a smart thing to do, when they were partners and had to live together on the ship.

She turned toward him, her mouth near his shoulder. "Why do you really keep me here?" she asked again, her voice sounding almost sultry now.

He pulled her against him, his decision made, and stroked her hair with his good hand. "I like you, Faye. You're a mess sometimes, and I end up rescuing your ass, but then again now and then you and the Red Tail save mine."

He ran his hand down her back, finally realizing how much he loved touching her. "You have a good heart," he said. "And you're tough when you need to be and I'd miss you like hell if you left."

"But I don't know Goethe," said Faye.

"I think you have him about figured out, actually. I always thought Werther was an idiot."

"I feel better then," she said.

She glanced at the stars through the glass again. "It used to be beautiful when this junk wasn't here. All that deep black and then the constellations were all you could see, unless you were near the Gate. But it's not so bad now either. It's still beautiful."

He touched her cheek and she turned to face him again.

"You know what?" he asked. "Sometimes if you really try, you can have a little bit of a happy ending."

He kissed her, and by the way she responded he could tell she believed him.


End file.
